• The forums will be unavailable for a few hours on Saturday 6th June, when they do return they will initially be in a degraded state with some features missing, but normal posting/reading will be possible. The main website will not be affected by these updates.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.
    Some other features of the forum are also currently disabled.

Ollie Pope


Inside Forward said:
This is partly why he’s so frustrating. As Nasser said it’s either feast or (mostly) famine with him. He will have the odd outstanding knock and you’ll think “right, time to kick on” but then there will be a dozen or so Tests in a row where he fails to get to 20.

I think I may have posted on the previous page that he has failed to last longer than 20 balls in something like 35% of his innings.

He still looks frenetic and panicked at the crease. After his 196 against India in his very next knock he looked like he hadn’t made a score in ages. It’s bizarre.
Click to expand...
Not sure he goes a dozen tests in a row like . He’s had two hundreds in his last 8 test matches. He’s batting in a really difficult position and there isn’t anyone better to do it . Well there is but he won’t
 
The Olly Pope debate reminds me of Ian Bell around 2005.

There were lots of folk wanting him dropped (two 50s in the Ashes) with Graham Thorpe being left out for Pietersen and Collingwood on the fringes.

All the ‘noise’ was ignored, the selectors stood by Bell, and he went on to be a superb Test Match batsman. Including a few centuries against Australia
 
Eggman said:
The Olly Pope debate reminds me of Ian Bell around 2005.

There were lots of folk wanting him dropped (two 50s in the Ashes) with Graham Thorpe being left out for Pietersen and Collingwood on the fringes.

All the ‘noise’ was ignored, the selectors stood by Bell, and he went on to be a superb Test Match batsman. Including a few centuries against Australia
Click to expand...

Bell had 9 centuries and about 3300 @40ish by the time he'd played around 50 tests (I've just done a quick add up of his stats on CricInfo up to end of 2009)

Pope has about 2900 runs @34ish with 7 centuries.

There's certainly a resemblance in terms how they were both lauded to be "the next great English batsman", but I'm not sure Pope will ever get the number of runs Bell finished with.

I think he'll get til the 1st NZ test and if he hasn't done anything he'll get the boot.
 
Eggman said:
The Olly Pope debate reminds me of Ian Bell around 2005.

There were lots of folk wanting him dropped (two 50s in the Ashes) with Graham Thorpe being left out for Pietersen and Collingwood on the fringes.

All the ‘noise’ was ignored, the selectors stood by Bell, and he went on to be a superb Test Match batsman. Including a few centuries against Australia
Click to expand...
Great call
 
Inside Forward said:
I’ve not seen his dismissal today but have heard it’s another poor one.

He has to go.
Click to expand...
He's defs in a big trough at the moment.

Be interesting to see if they persist beyond the NZ series, as he's not getting dropped for that.

Also wouldn't surprise me if him and Cox switch duties during the series. Cos already been suggested Cox may not keep in all 3.

I'm waiting to see if we call up a backup batsman for the series. Who that is would be a mystery.
 
Nothing wrong with him being took out of the team for a short period to work on things

Root was took out and came back and it worked out well for him
 
leecoo said:
Nothing wrong with him being took out of the team for a short period to work on things

Root was took out and came back and it worked out well for him
Click to expand...
Root only missed two tests in his career. One was in 13/14 Ashes when he still relatively new to test cricket.

The other was in 2020 when Stokes captained in his absence against the Windies and was due to his child being born.
 
Hettonlass said:
The problem with that is that he's VC, was Root VC back then?
Click to expand...
Nope dont think so, but dont see how being a VC is a problem
mackembhoy said:
Rootonly missed two tests in his career. One was in 13/14 ashes when he still pretty new to test cricket.

The other was in 2020 when Stokes captained in his absence against the Windies and was due to his child being born.
Click to expand...
i must be mistaken then but i was sure he was
 
Last edited:
59 out of 91 innings for Pope have been for 0-23 and then 20 of them 50+

Therein lies the problem with Pope, in that he's capable of getting the bigger runs in a reasonable amount of innings per 50+ score.

But has far too many failures alongside them. Not sure he will get over this bad starter rep either as he's not a natural number 3.
 
I fear that England's management would view Pope's dropping as a reflection on their ability to nuture talent to fulfill it's potential. There seems to be a degree of bloody mindedness in the camp which may may be obscuring the bigger picture. Loyalty is admirable but can go too far.

For every player that has been 'persisted with' and has come good, there are probably more that haven't. A difficult call to make.
 
Dan..Dan..Dan..Dan said:
I fear that England's management would view Pope's dropping as a reflection on their ability to nuture talent to fulfill it's potential. There seems to be a degree of bloody mindedness in the camp which may may be obscuring the bigger picture. Loyalty is admirable but can go too far.

For every player that has been 'persisted with' and has come good, there are probably more that haven't. A difficult call to make.
Click to expand...
He’s had 6 or 7 years now though. He’s nearly 27. There has to come a point where they admit defeat. Slightly in his defence he isn’t a number 3 but he has asked to bat there. He should be batting in the middle of the order but he’s an inferior player to Root, Brook, Smith etc…

Hopefully Cox makes a strong case in New Zealand.
Actually I’ve just read an interesting article on BBC about Smith being a potential future number 3.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top